by Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper:
Within the past ten days, both Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger have announced that they plan to lay off 20% of their workforces. Despite early media hype about how these highly processed plant burgers would “save the planet,” it turned out a lot of people just didn’t like them that much.
Americans keep hearing that we need to eat less meat.
This may be true. I’ve had friends that hit Whataburger two or three times a day, which is probably not necessary. I love Whataburger too, but not 10+ times a week. And a quick glance at Pub Med will show many articles about research being done, trying to nudge people into making healthier food choices. The World Economic Forum openly wants to “Nudge Meat Off the Menu.”
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If this was all about health, well, a lot of us could probably use it. But is it just about health? Or are other factors at play here? Let’s look at some of the alternative proteins currently being pushed.
More research is being done all the time on plant proteins.
Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are both companies producing a synthetic ground meat substitute that somewhat looks and tastes like real beef. The hubris surrounding these companies’ product releases was pretty amazing.
Both companies believe their products will save the world, and for a time, they were able to attract many celebrity endorsements and investors. They believe ending animal agriculture will solve humanity’s environmental problems and see their products as a more ethical substitute.
So, what are these magically virtuous products? Beyond burgers are mostly made of pea and rice protein, and canola and coconut oil. Impossible burgers are made with soy protein, sunflower oil, and coconut oil. Both fake meat products “bleed.”Beyond uses beet juice to achieve this, while Impossible uses heme, a flavoring created from a genetically modified yeast.
I’ve tried these myself because I’ll try almost anything food-wise. If they’re mixed in with other foods, like in a casserole or lasagna, the taste isn’t super different from ground beef. However, I had some fairly painful digestive problems afterward and have no interest in trying them again.
Insects have also been getting a lot of hype.
We’ve discussed this before at the OP. The WEF has been promoting insect-eating so aggressively and persistently for years now that one of their newer articles comes with this disclaimer:
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So, here’s the WEF article for you to read yourself, if you need more proof that they want us to eat insects.
In sum, the above-referenced WEF article claims that:
- Insects produce equivalent amounts of quality protein when compared to animals.
- Insects require less care and upkeep than livestock.
- We’re actually running out of protein.
- Insects are part of a virtuous ecocycle.
- You can start small and work your way up.
As a meat producer, I could take issue with every single one of these points. But that’s not the goal of this article. I just want to give evidence that most of us plebes are, indeed, being nudged toward eating insects.
People are getting heated up about this from both sides of the argument.
The European Union just approved lesser mealworm larvae and crickets as acceptable for human consumption. But then, in response, Qatar’s health minister reaffirmed his country’s ban on insect eating, saying that it is not halal and thereby forbidden for devout Muslims.
And this touches on why forcing us to eat certain things is more malicious than it may first appear. I’m not Muslim or Jewish. I’m supposed to avoid meat products at certain times of the year, but other than that, I don’t follow a religion with particularly strict dietary guidelines. However, I do have strong feelings about being able to practice my religion, and I tend to sympathize with others that feel the same way. When Jews and Muslims are being misled about the contents of their food, they are not just being “nudged” to make different diet choices; they are being nudged to violate their religious beliefs.
(Don’t want to eat bugs? Then check out our free QUICKSTART Guide to building a 3-layer food storage system.)
Whether we knowingly choose them or not, insects are winding up in our food.
Small amounts of insect parts are unavoidable when we eat food produced on a mass scale. Heck, I eat tons of food straight from my garden while I’m working without washing, and I’m sure I’ve scarfed down my share of bugs. I could be more attentive if I so chose.
But this has been going on more than we realize. There has been controversy for some time now about the use of insects to create red dye. Personally, these insects have been used in such small amounts for such a long period of time I am not particularly troubled by it. But the labels merely refer to the insects as natural red 4, crimson lake, or E120. There’s no way to know what it is unless you research it, which has been problematic since many people with shellfish allergies also react to insects.
Furthermore, small amounts of insects being used for food coloring is completely different from replacing diet staples like meat patties or flour with insects. In some ways, this is similar to the nutritional issues with soy. For a long time, soy was touted as a great meat alternative because it’s high in protein. And soy foods have been used in Asian countries for thousands of years.
However, traditional Asian societies had very specific preparation techniques for soy.
Western countries that used novel preparation techniques found out that highly processed soy products are associated with their own set of health concerns.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Humans have been evolving for millennia; our guts have been evolving, too, with the natural foods surrounding us. The assumption that we can dump all kinds of new crap into our systems and function just as well as ever should strike us as dangerous.
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